Dry cleaning machine



Oct. 9, 1934. SNYDER 1,975,982

DRY CLEANING MACHINE Filed April 2. 1951 E Z j.

Patented Oct. 9, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DRY CLEANING MACHINE poration of Ohio Application April 2, 1931, Serial No. 527,279

1 Claim.

, 5 cleaned in gasoline or like dry-cleaning solution. 7

The general object of the present invention is to provide a construction of this character which is very simple, which is compact, which may be 10 cheaply manufactured and which is particularly designed to be used in homes for small work where only a few articles are to be drycleaned at a time.

A more detailed object is to provide a construction of this character constructed to provide an outer container and an inner perforated rotatable drum, the drum so disposed within the container that when the container is stood on one end, the liquid within the container will be disposed entirely below the drum and when the container is stood on its side, the drum will be partially immersed within the dry cleaning liquid within the container whereby after. the articles being washed have been submitted to the dry-cleaning action by rotating the drum in a position with the container on its side, the container may be turned on to its end to thus permit the liquid to drain from the articles being cleaned in the lower portion of the drum and. permit a whirling motion to be applied to the drum to thus discharge the dry-cleaning liquid from the articles.

A further object in this connection is to provide a construction such that when themachine is standing in a closed drying position, the liquid will drain into the outer container and will remain there and which does not require that the container shall be inverted to discharge the liquid in order that the liquid may drain from the clothes and from the drum and the clothes be dried.

A further object is to provide a closure for one end of the container and for one end of the drum so designed that it will prevent the leaking of the liquid when the machine is turned on its side for cleaningand which is so constructed as to do away with the necessity of using gaskets, clamps, etc., or removing ordisturbing any of the working parts of the machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide a gear case on one end of the container whereby the drum is driven, which gear case is so formed as to constitute a handle whereby the container may be carried or tilted, this gear case being disposed at right angles to the direction of tilting movement to thus provide a very easy tilting means whereby the container may be tilted from its cleaning position to its drying position and vice versa.

Other objects will appear in the course of the 0 following description.

My'invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:-

Figure l is a vertical sectional view of the container and drum, the container being shown in its cleaning position;

Figure 2 is an elevation of the container when turned into its drying or draining position;

Figure 3 is the front elevation of the container when turned into the cleaning position shown 70 in Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing, 10 designates the outer container which is made of sheet metal and is preferably cylindrical in form, though I do not wish to be limited to this. If the container is cylindrical in form, it is provided at one portion of its periphery with the two parallel flat supporting members 11 which support the container when it is turned upon its side. The front of the container is partially closed by a plate 12 which extends somewhat beyond the axial center of the container. The rear of the container is fully closed by the plate 13. Both the plate 12 and the plate 13 are attached as by solder or the like to the side wall of the con- 8 tainer and neither are removable.

Disposed within the container is the drum 14 which is rotatably mounted upon a spindle l5 engaged with the bottom of the drum, this spindle 15 being mounted in suitable bearings within the container. The side wall of the drum may also be perforated if desired. The outer end of the drum, that is, the end toward the open end of the container 10 is partly closed by a transverse plate or web 17 which covers somewhat more than half of the drum. A driving shaft 18 extends through the wall 12 of the container and is operatively engaged with the web 17. Preferably a dasher or bafiie 19 will bedisposed within the container and extends radially with relation thereto. This may be held in place in any suitable manner. This dasher or bafiie is not movable but rotates with the drum.

The shaft 18 extends through the wall 12 and is provided with the bevel gear 20 engaged by a bevel gear 21 mounted on a driving shaft 22 having a detachable crank handle 23. The driving mechanism is enclosed entirely within a twopart housing 24 which, as shown in Figure "2, is provided with an enlarged'portion enclosing the gears 20 and 21 and having a base 25 riveted to the wall 12. At its other end, the housing 24 is provided with a leg 26 whose widened end is riveted to the wall 12. It will be noted that this housing extends parallel to the supports 11. The housing is preferably made of cast metal and when the two sections of the housing are engaged with each other, they entirely enclose the driving mechanism and at the same time form a handle whereby the machine may be turned from the position shown in Figure 2 to the position shown in Figure 3 or vice versa or,

whereby the container may be lifted and carried. For the purpose of closing the front opening into the drum, I provide. the lid 27 which is segmental in form and has its straight edge portion formed with a flange 28 engaging over the edge of the wall 1'7 while its curved portion is formed with an inwardly extending flange 29:

engaging over the margin of the side wall of the-drum. This lid is held in place by a spring latch 30. The lid is formed with a handle 31 whereby it may be opened and lifted out whenever it is necessary. The container is closed by a lid 32 formed with a hook-shaped flange 33 on its straight edge which engages overthe margin of the wall 12 and the curved edge of the lid is formed with the inwardly extending flange 34 which engages over the wall of the container. This lid is held in place by the spring latch 35.

By forming the container with a solid wall 12, that is, in having half of the top of the container securely fastened in place so that it cannot be removed, I prevent any possible chance of the liquid within the container leaking out when the machine is turned on its side, resting upon the supports 11, for cleaning purposes, as in Figure 3.

This liquid being very light, as for instance, a light hydro-carbon easily escapes through any part that is not securely fastened and it would be very hard in a cheap machine of this kind to put a rubber gasket so securely in place that it would prevent leakage when the machine is on its side. Furthermore, the hydro-carbon used for cleaning purposes would act deleteriously upon the rubber and would require that the gasket should be renewed quite often. This is entirely avoided in my construction where the level of liquid within the container when the container is on its side is never above the upper edge of the wall or top 12.

Furthermore, this construction does away with the necessity of removing or disturbing any of the working parts of the machine. If the entire top of the container came ofi, it would necessitate all of the inside mechanism being moved and this would complicate the construction and render the machine cumbersome. There is no danger of getting the gears out of mesh or disturbing the mechanism, which the housewife is not familiar with. I

It is also obvious that by having only a part of the lid of the drum removable, the shaft 18 which supports the drum does not have to be disturbed. 1

The operation of this dry cleaner is evident from whathas gone before, but attention is'particularly called to the fact that the machine merely has to be tilted from its washing position to its drying position in order to drain and dry the clothes. When in its washing position, it rests upon the supports 11 and the handle is rotated to cause a rotation of the drum through the liquid which is contained in the then bottom of the container. The baffle or dash 19 causes the clothes to be revolved with the drum and taken through and through the dry-cleaning liquid so that every portion of the goods is submitted to the action of the liquid. When a suiiicient washing action has been secured, the container is then turned up on its end simply by taking hold of the handle and tilting the container. Inasmuch as the supports 11 are fiat faced, it is obvious that the container cannot readily be tilted in any manner except at right angles to the length of these supports and this is further rendered easy by the fact that the housing for the gear case extends parallel to the length of these supports 11.

After the container has been turned up on end, the cleaning liquid will drain from the goods into the lower portion of the container and if desirable,the drum may be rotated to cause the discharge of cleaning liquid from the goods through the perforations in the drum by centrifugal action. It will,of course, be understood that this container is never filled with cleaning liquid to the height of the bottom of the drum lewhen'this drum is turned up in the position shown in Figure 2. When the device is being used for cleaning purposes, it is disposed as in Figures 1 and 3, in which case, the drum, of course, passes through the cleaning liquid and subjects the clothes to the action thereof, but when the articles are to be freed and dried, the container is'turned from the position shown in Figure 3 to the position shown in Figure-2 simply by taking hold of the gear housing or handle 24 and tilting the container on to its bottom. It will be particularly noted that there are no auxiliary parts required to separate the container as it rests in one position upon the supports or feet 11 and in the other position upon its'bottom 13.

Attention is particularly called to the fact that the lid 32 is so constructed, as is the lid 27, for that matter, that if any of the liquid is splashed on to this lid when the machine is in its washing position, the liquid will run down back into the container instead of leaking to the outside of the container. In other words, the lid 32 is formed with a downwardly extending flange which extends down behind the wall 12, this flange 33 extending the full diameter or width of the container. r

In the construction illustrated, the diameter and height of the machine is carefully worked out to provide proper space for the liquid beneath the drum when the container is-in its drying position and at the same time to insure that the level of the liquid shall be high enough for proper cleaning purposes when the machine is in its washing position. The machine shown has a capacity of from three quarts to four quarts of liquid and to illustrate the value of the proportions used, a little better, I might say that if this machine was one inch larger in diameter andone inch greater in height there would be a.

loss of efficiency because if a gallon of fluid is used, this change in dimensions would reduce the level of the fluid when in cleaning position more than and thus lessen the cleaning action.

It is, therefore, necessary to work out the size of V the container so as'to permit just enough room beneath the drum for the-amount of liquid to be used and at the same time figure the dimension the machine should be with relation to the diameter and height to bring the liquid level forated drum mounted within the container and carried by said shaft, a shaft geared to the first named shaft and extending at right angles thereto and disposed in spaced relation to the outside face of the fixed section of the top, and a housing enclosing the last named shaft and gears and having portions mounted upon and engaging the fixed section of the top, said portions spacing the body of the housing from the fixed top section of the container whereby said housing may act as a handle.

JOHN L. SNYDER. 

